Finance

Attorneys for the Justice Department and Penguin Random House squared off on Monday in the first day of an antitrust trial, as the government challenges the publishing giant’s proposed $2.2 billion acquisition of Simon & Schuster. “This proposed merger must be stopped,” John Read, the Justice Department’s attorney, said in opening arguments.

Source: Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster Merger Won’t Drive Down Author Advances And They Will “Continue To Go Up,” Publisher’s Attorney Says At Opening Of Antitrust Trial — Update

Web3 company and NFT marketplace OneOf has raised over $8 million in new strategic funding. The firm says the round will accelerate the development of what it calls its “environmentally sustainable NFT marketplace”. In May 2021, OneOf raised $63 million in a seed round from prominent tech and music industry veterans.

Source: Quincy Jones-backed NFT platform OneOf closes $8m funding round

Lyrics-providing platform Musixmatch has secured a significant investment from TPG Growth, “the middle market and growth equity platform” of the asset management firm TPG. The strategic partnership advances Musixmatch’s goal of providing lyrical content, enriched metadata, tools, and services while expanding its offerings internationally.  Musixmatch has provided metadata to many digital service providers (DSPs), including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Google, Instagram, Spotify, and Tidal. 

Source: Lyrics Platform Musixmatch Announces Investment From TPG

Sony’s global music rights operation – across recorded music and music publishing – generated USD $2.03 billion in the three months to end of June 2022. The $2.03 billion figure was up 11.7% year-on-year (vs. calendar Q2 2021) at US dollar-converted constant currency. In monetary terms, Sony’s overall music rights operation (recorded music plus music publishing) generated approximately $212 million more in calendar Q2 2022 than in the prior-year quarter.

Source: Sony generated over $2bn from recorded music and publishing in calendar Q2; recorded music revenues were up 11.2% YoY

The Big Three record label unveiled its second-quarter showing – and its continued streaming growth – this afternoon. In total, Universal Music Group said that it had pulled down €2.54 billion (the dollar and the euro were nearly even at the time of writing) during Q2 2022, which reflects the initially mentioned 25.4 percent YoY boost as well as a 17.3 percent gain in constant currency (CC).

Source: Universal Music Group Revenue Jumps Amid Streaming Growth

Spotify’s purchase of Findaway, a platform that allows users to create, distribute, and monetize their own audiobooks, cost it €117 million, or around $123 million USD, the company revealed today. Findaway will provide the infrastructure for what will become the third pillar of Spotify’s business. The streaming service first announced the acquisition last November.

Source: Spotify paid $123 million for Findaway, the bedrock of its audiobook ambitions

In its Q2 results announced today (July 27), Spotify has confirmed that it added 6 million net Premium subscribers to its user base in Q2, taking its total global subs up to 188 million. That was bigger than the 5 million subscribers SPOT previously told investors it was expecting to add in the second quarter. It also means that, with2 million net subscriber adds banked in Q1, Spotify added a total of 8 million additional net Premium subscribers in the first six months of 2022.

Source: Once again, Spotify avoids Netflix’s woes: Music streamer added 6m net subscribers in Q2

The CMA has confirmed that it has made a preliminary decision not to pursue a full-scale investigation into the music streaming industry in the UK. (Or, at least, it has issued a “proposal” not to do so; its final, final decision will be taken on August 19.) The CMA has, for the past six months, been conducting a light-touch ‘market study’ into streaming economics in the UK, which would ultimately decide whether a full-blown investigation was required.

Source: Big result for major record companies, as UK competition watchdog dismisses need for music market investigation

MELON’s seed funding comes from backers including Crush Ventures, Gaingels, Comcast Spectacor, and an SPV led by Matt Finick, formerly CFO at Roblox and Marvel Entertainment. Notably, Crush Ventures, the investment arm of Crush Music, has a management roster spanning the likes of Miley Cyrus, Sia, Green Day, Panic! at the Disco, and Weezer, among others.

Source: Metaverse experiences startup MELON raises $5m from backers including Crush Music’s investment arm

CEO Hartwig Masuch told MBW today: “If you believe as we do that the long-term prospects for music are positive, there’s no reason to back off right now. On the contrary. With much of the froth going out of the market as pure investment vehicles face pressure in funding, there is even more reason to invest. “That’s why quietly we have struck more than 30 deals for publishing and/or recorded rights already this year.”

Source: Bertelsmann could invest as much as $1bn in 2022 to help BMG buy catalog rights (if it wins the race for Pink Floyd)